Fiji turning to coral gardening to save its lucrative South Pacific reefs from bleaching

Tourism is the backbone of Fiji's economy but it's under threat; the Pacific island paradise and many of the vibrant coral reefs that hundreds of tourists, particularly Australians, come to see have been killed off in mass coral bleaching events.

Heat - resistant coral is not an artificial construct. The mutation occurs naturally in the remote Kimberley region of north-west Australia, where the world's At some reefs , the final death toll is likely to exceed 90%." Making super coral . Dr Schoepf's team is yet to pinpoint the exact gene Kimberley coral uses

The climate is changing faster than many species can adapt, so scientists are trying to speed up evolution by fostering the spread of creatures who can take the heat. Think of it as natural section with a little boost from humans — or, in some cases, robots.

To that end, Australian scientists Peter Harrison and Matthew Dunbabin recently teamed up for a world-first field experiment. A robot Dunbabin designed carried coral larvae that Harrison had gathered and dispersed them on part of the Great Barrier Reef. What makes these larvae unique — and the groundbreaking experiment especially promising — is that the they are heat-tolerant, meaning they not only could survive, but flourish, in warmer waters.

The world’s largest shark may eat plants

The conventional wisdom has been that whale sharks, like other sharks, exclusively eat other sea creatures. The largest fish in the sea (about a school bus in length, and weighing more than 20 tons) are believed to subside by filtering massive amounts of tiny prey, like krill, fish eggs, and the occasional squid or prawn through their mouths and gills. How To Get A Home Loan With 5% Deposit Find out more on Finder Ad Finder.com.au But scientists in Japan recently found that whale sharks may not be entirely carnivorous.

Blog. Ocean Currents. Restoring Endangered Coral Reefs . Coral reefs are the rainforests of the sea. They provide three-dimensional habitat for an astonishing variety of plants and animals. Can these corals be saved ? We’re working on that at Coral Restoration Foundation, here in Key Largo

Coral reefs are areas underwater where small creatures live. The coral is hard material formed on Global warming is the heating of the planet, which most scientists say is caused by harmful carbon breed – v. to keep and take care of animals or plants in order to produce more animals or plants of a

Harrison had collected the larvae from corals that had survived deadly marine heat waves in 2016, 2017 and 2018. “These surviving larvae are likely to have greater ability to withstand heat stress as they survive and grow,” Harrison said, meaning they could thrive in a warmer world.

Pollution from fossil fuels is heating up the planet, rendering ocean waters inhospitable for coral. Even in the more optimistic scenarios, virtually all of the world’s reefs could be eradicated by mid-century. Ensuring the survival of these natural treasures will depend on cultivating more heat-tolerant corals. That’s where the robot, called “LarvalBot,” comes in.

“I first thought about the larval restoration concept some decades ago when I was part of the team that discovered the mass coral spawning phenomenon on the Great Barrier Reef in the early 1980s,” said Harrison, director of the Marine Ecology Research Centre at Southern Cross University. “Literally billions of coral larvae are produced during mass spawning events from healthy corals, but as coral cover and health have declined to the point where too few larvae are produced from remaining remnant coral populations, we now need to intervene to give nature a helping hand.”

Sydney Morning Herald photographer Nick Moir has come to the defence of his photo, explaining why he couldn't save the animals stuck in mud at Lake Cawndilla near Menindee. Some people had questioned why photographs were taken, but the animals were not rescued. Moir said he tried to help - but simply couldn't. "I took the shot with a drone about a kilometre and a half away from the lake bed," Moir said. "People forget if the roo got stuck in the soft mud, it wouldn't have been so great for me either." "That's not to say I didn't give it a go.

Coral reefs occupy less than 1% of the ocean floor, concentrating an astounding array of marine life into relatively small areas. For coral to survive and thrive, their symbiotic relationship with algae must adapt. Bleaching occurs when warm water triggers coral to expel algae as a means to reduce

Australia's reef is big, beautiful and on its deathbed. The reef can still heal itself, but not without our help. Daniel Harrison thinks he has an answer to saving Australia's Great Barrier Reef from rising ocean temperatures: a high-powered water cannon.

Harrison had already developed techniques for mass spawn capture and larval rearing, but “one aspect that I still wanted to develop further was a more efficient larval delivery process onto the damaged reef areas, and so the LarvalBot concept developed from discussions with Matt.”

The robot has the capacity to carry around 100,000 microscopic coral larvae per mission, and Dunbabin expects to scale up to millions. The robot gently releases the larvae onto damaged reef areas allowing them to settle and, over time, develop into full-grown corals.

“We call this the ‘Swiss-army-knife’ of underwater robots, as it was designed to do multiple tasks with customizable payloads, such as photo surveys, water quality monitoring, marine pest surveillance and control, and now coral larvae dispersal,” said Dunbabin, a robotics professor at the Queensland University of Technology.

China grows the first plants on the Moon

The greenery you see in the soil above might not look like much, but it represents a big step in space exploration.

With some of the world’s richest ecosystems hanging in the balance, scientists are turning to technologies like 3-D printing.

Off the coast of American Samoa, the tropical sun beats down on a shallow tidal lagoon, heating the water to a sizzling 35 °C for a few hours each day. Such temperatures would kill off most coral reefs , and yet the Samoan lagoon hosts courtyards of antler-like branching corals and mound corals the

“Using an iPad to program the mission, a signal is sent to deliver the larvae and it is gently pushed out by LarvalBot,” Dunbabin said. “It’s like spreading fertilizer on your lawn. The robot is very smart, and as it glides along, we target where the larvae need to be distributed so new colonies can form and new coral communities can develop.” The robot has an onboard vision system that allows it to “see” its way through reef environments, he explained.

“We will be monitoring the survival and growth of juvenile corals as they appear on the reef,” Harrison said. “We should start to see juvenile corals after about 9 months when they grow large enough to become visible on the reef.”

Later this spring, the researchers plan to send the robot — with more larvae — to degraded reefs in the Philippines, then will aim for an even larger project on the Great Barrier Reef in late 2019.

One of the advantages of the robot is that it can also monitor the growth of coral reefs, which will help scientists understand how they respond to the larval delivery. This will be critical to scaling up the process. “We need to learn how to restore corals and reefs at larger scales very quickly,” Harrison said. “During my lifetime I’ve witnessed continual degradation of reefs around the world, including parts of the Great Barrier Reef. This is incredibly sad and frustrating.”

Dunbabin agreed. “Coral reefs are spectacular. Even now when I jump in the water and see all the fish and colors, I still am in awe of these eco-cities of connected life,” he said. “I can’t help but feel I need to do something to help restore them to what they were.”

Renegades too hot for Heat in WBBL.
Sophie Molineux was patient with the bat and Leah Tahuhu slick with the ball as the Renegades made it four on the trot in Mackay

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